Israel: from Jaffa oranges to semiconductors

This is how New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg described the transformation of the Israeli economy. It follows decades of funding for science and research which has changed the Israeli economy from one of kibbutz-based agriculture growing oranges and other crops to the high tech economy we see today. The centre of scientific research and engineering in Israel is the Technion in Haifa. Technion president Peretz Lavie describes the Technion’s vision, how it has developed over its 100-year history, and how Israel’s high-tech graduates have changed the economy.

Transcript

Robyn Williams: The Technion in Haifa is 100. And the director of Israel's research colossus is in Australia this week. So the question arises; why would a nation with barely 8 million people wants to spend so much on scientific research? And what is Technion? Professor Peretz Lavie:

Peretz Lavie: Well, the Technion that's just celebrated the 100th anniversary started as an engineering school, modelled after a German engineering school of the late 19th century, but has developed over the years to a premier research institute focusing on engineering and sciences. So most of the research in the Technion is engineering, all the sciences, and life sciences and medicine.

Robyn Williams: But the thing that surprises me often about what you do in Israel, particularly at Technion, is that you are doing general basic research as well, not simply focused on the needs of a small country in a particular place in the Middle East.

Peretz Lavie: This is very interesting. My first report as a president...and on the cover there was a coin tossed in the air, and everybody asked me, 'What is the coin all about?' And I said this is to symbolise that basic research and applied research are two sides of the same coin. And the difference between the two sides is smaller than ever. We look at basic research as fundamental research. Some of the basic research in the long run produces substantial applied results.

To give you an example, Professors Hershko and Ciechanover, 2004 Nobel laureates, got the Nobel Prize in chemistry for discovering the ubiquitin system that gets rid of proteins that are either misfolded or damaged or no longer needed. Twenty years later anti-cancer medications were based on their discovery. So they didn't have any medication in mind when they studied the ubiquitin system, but here it comes, basic research leading to applied research.

On the other hand there are needs of the country, you're absolutely right, and some of the research is directed at these needs. So we are not looking differently at applied research and basic research, they are indeed the two sides of the same coin.

Robyn Williams: The point is that when you do make a breakthrough like that, when you do basic research, that leads to something that clearly can be applied, how do you then put yourself in touch, as a small country, with those with whom you can develop this work? How do you build those relationships?

Peretz Lavie: Well, there are several ways. I think that's the greatest asset of the Technion is the graduates. Israel in the last 20 years has turned from an agriculture-based country to a high-tech empire. The number of start-up companies in Israel is second only to the Silicon Valley, and I don't know if you heard about a book, Start-Up Nation, but indeed it is a start-up nation. 42% of Technion graduates have been involved with a start-up company, 80% of our graduates are within the high-tech sector. They change the economy.

So I think it's the culture and the atmosphere. This is something that has been built over years, and it has to do with education. Just to give you an example, our new Nobel laureate, Professor Shechtman, he got the 2011 Nobel prize in chemistry for the quasicrystals, has been teaching a course in entrepreneurship for 26 years. I've been participating in this course for the last 14 years, and in each class there are 400 to 600 students, and to give a lecture to 400, 600 students with their shining eyes, who are swallowing every word that you say about entrepreneurship, this is a cultural change. And you multiply 500 by 26 years, and here you go.

I believe that it is part education, it is part of the culture, it's part psychological factors like in Israel you know the word chutzpah, the hierarchy doesn't exist like in other countries, and this resulted in the country that almost worships innovation, and this is what happened in Israel. So when you are a faculty member who is doing research, you can either say, look, I am doing basic research, I don't care about who is going to apply my research, but there are others who have fire in the belly and once they have a discovery they would like to implement it.

For one, I have been involved in several companies in my life before I became a president, and there is now a public company based on an invention from my laboratory because it was basic research, but we saw the application and now it's a public company producing equipment for the medical market. In the Technion we have a technology transfer unit that identifies ideas that may have some commercial value or practical value and they try to build companies et cetera.

Robyn Williams: Yes, is that why presumably the nation, unlike many which invest to some extent like Australia, just over 2% of GDP into research, you have twice that, over 4%.

Peretz Lavie: We have 4.5%. This is indeed probably the largest...if you take it as part of the GDP, the largest portion invested in civilian and other research, and it is interesting, very few people know that it started in the mid-'60s when Levi Eshkol was the Prime Minister, and he decided to appoint chief scientists in every one of the government offices. And these chief scientists had a budget to support the research. So most of the budget now comes from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and it appeared that when you had an idea you got money to do the research. And this is part of the cultural change that has taken place over the last two decades.

The Technion now won an international competition issued by Mayor Bloomberg of New York. Mayor Bloomberg was very envious of Silicon Valley and he called for universities to propose a graduate research institute or a technological university to help the economy of New York. And the Technion participated together with Cornell University. There were 40 universities around the world that participated, some of the best known, Stanford and Colombia, and from the Far East, Singapore and Korea, and the Technion won, together with Cornell.

And I remember standing next to Mayor Bloomberg in New York during the press conference and I asked him, 'Why Technion?' So he said, 'You know, you're the only university I know that took Jaffa oranges and turned them into semiconductors.' I couldn't say it better.

But there is something about the culture and the atmosphere in the Technion that encourages our students to be pioneers. Many, many years ago a pioneer in Israel went to a kibbutz, and now a pioneer in Israel is going to a start-up company. So this is what has happened in the last 20 years.

Robyn Williams: Clearly creating wealth. Are there any people in Israel generally who object to the amount of support given to science?

Peretz Lavie: No, I don't think so. I think that, on the contrary, more support should be given to science. I think the universities over the last probably 15 years have suffered a lot. We call it the lost decade, between 2000 and 2010, when the government cut the budget by one-third. The Technion lost 100 positions. And now we start to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

There was a government decision two days ago, on Sunday the government met and decided to encourage more students to go into the high-tech related areas, computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering. I just got it this morning in the mail, and they promise also to provide more support for these areas, and of course I am delighted by that decision.

Robyn Williams: President of Technion, Professor Peretz Lavie, and more from him next month on The Science Show here on RN, all about sleep and why teenagers should go to school an hour later.